Regenerator
by FalconStorm
Summary: Fanfic of a fanfic, based on Maroongrad's "Succession". Anderson has taken Integra's place as Alucard's master after illness drags her down with no heir available, but what happens when the paladin regenerator also takes ill...and how could that happen? No yaoi. Dedicated to Maroongrad for her awesome stories.
1. Opening Notes

Welcome to Regenerator. There's some things I need to establish before the fic can begin. First of all, this is really a fanfic of a fanfic. This is based on the fanfic 'Succession' by Maroongrad, with full permission from her. Due to that, I'm going to include a synopsis of her work so you guys aren't completely LOST by what I'm doing here. Please, please, please go check out her work. Her writing is really amazing and her version of Alucard makes me want to cuddle up to him in a warm corner, even with the likelihood he'd rip my face off while I do it…or seduce me as he tries to terrify me. I might be okay with the whole seduction thing. *grin*

In Succession, Integra has grown old and become ill, about to die with no heir to take mastership of Alucard. Alucard *needs* a master because, without being bonded to a human mind, he will fall prey to the madness that his powers bring on. Therefore, he is a willing participant in the bond with Hellsing, although he constantly tests his bonds because he will not bow to a master that is weaker willed than he. It is based on the animeverse, so Paladin Anderson is still living. Integra looks all over for someone to recreate the ritual that originally bonded Alucard to the Hellsing family since she cannot produce a blood heir. The only one she can find that she thinks might be able to hold Alucard's reins is Paladin Anderson.

Naturally, Anderson and Alucard both are not completely in line with this idea, but with the release of Alucard's powers at stake, Anderson agrees. In bonding with the vampire, he discovers a whole new side to Alucard, a side that *needs* his master to keep the insanity at bay and needs company and companionship as much as any human, if not more so. Although Alucard will willingly and gleefully rip through ghouls, vampires and even other humans that get in his way, he is fiercely devoted to his master and anyone he considers 'his'. After losing so many masters to age and human frailty, it is something of a relief to find himself bonded to a regenerator whose life may very well stretch in years to equal his own.

As for Anderson…considerably older and beginning to feel the effects of immortality himself, he has mellowed, becoming more open minded and wiser. He can understand and appreciate Alucard's loneliness and need for companionship, and even finds himself enjoying the companionship of the vampire and the bond he has with him.

So, I definitely recommend reading Maroongrad's Succession, perhaps even before this fic, but I think the synopsis details it relatively well. Feel free to PM me with questions or leave them in reviews. I look at ALL reviews and will do my best to respond.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing and I do not own Maroongrad's Succession. Sadly, she also does not own Hellsing, but we still have fun playing in the universe.


	2. Unexpected Pain

Note: Anderson does not run Hellsing. He's just Alucard's master. 'Lady Hellsing' is a person chosen by Integra before her death to run the organization.

**Ch. 1: Unexpected Pain**

Paladin Alexander Anderson stepped out of the Jeep and looked around at the sleepy town, taking a deep breath of the night air. He winced as a sharp pain ripped through his side. Quickly, he suppressed the pained look, before Seras or Alucard could see him. He did not need them going into a panic over this, even if he shouldn't be experiencing pain without a visible wound. He could worry about it later. Tonight, he got to hunt.

According to Alucard, they hadn't seen a foreign vampire on English soil in over a decade, but everything he had learned about this incident pointed to a stranger…a potentially powerful one. Alex's face broke out in a wide, predatory grin as his vampires joined him.

Alucard's grin matched his own, but Seras gave him a reproachful look.

"Master, please don't forget what happens to us…what _Alucard_ does, when you get hurt."

Both males, vampire and paladin turned to scowl at her. She shrank back, but noticed a slight twitch at the corner of Alex's eye. Was that…pain?

"Tonight we hunt, police girl." Alucard's red eyes glowed with anticipation. Seras sighed, giving the argument up as a lost cause.

Behind them, Hellsing soldiers lined up in ranks, just a single squadron. With two vampires and a regenerator, the soldiers were more for containment and civilian control than fighting. If the reports hadn't come from a relatively populated area, Alex would have left them behind.

"Sergeant, you know your job. We'll be going in, now." The squad's leader saluted the paladin and turned to instruct his soldiers. Lady Hellsing raised an eyebrow at Alex taking command of the operation and he tossed her an apologetic smile. Old habits died hard and he was used to being in charge of his own operations.

"Come on, you two." Alucard shot off into the dark town like a greyhound from the starting line. Seras stayed closer, still the more cautious of the two. Less than a minute later, the screams began.

The main vampire turned out to be foreign and old; possibly an originator like Alucard, the result of dark magics and an unholy pact with a devil rather than the bite of another vampire. Wise and canny, he had several children and a veritable army of ghouls built up before anyone noticed the missing. Alex's cheeks ached from grinning at the joy of the carnage as they ploughed through the lesser beings, Alucard's cackle echoing alongside his own.

With five years of mastership behind them, Alucard had finally begun to relax and trust in the survivability of his new master. There were occasional incidents and Alex had learned he couldn't play with his prey as much as he used to, but the vampires no longer panicked at a minor scratch. They reserved that for when he lost limbs, now. Thus, he got to resume his proper place in the battles…on the front line.

Alucard found the ancient beast first, flushing it out of the basement of an abandoned house like a fox, squalling as it went. No confident, arrogant vampire, this. The beast fled from them, yammering gibberish in a language Alex almost recognized. Old Latin, perhaps? He yanked his two favorite bayonets from the dissolving corpse at his feet and joined the chase.

Surely, this couldn't be the cunning beast that had built up such an army, but as he watched Alucard close on the creature and take it down like a hunting hound, he realized it must be. Power radiated off the creature as it dissolved into a black puddle in an effort to escape the snarling fangs of the red-clad vampire. Alex circled around it, bayonets poised in a defensive stance, blood dripping down their gleaming lengths from his kills. His side twinged again, a painful, pulling sensation which he quickly squelched. Later. They had a mad vampire to subdue. He could worry about it later.

How long had the creature been here before the madness which Alucard had bonded to avoid made it sloppy? He had no idea. Seras joined them, her anti-freak cannon propped across her shoulders. It was useless against a vampire capable of shadow forms and she knew it.

Alucard sprouted black tendrils from his hair and back, sending them after the retreating ink blot. Alex crouched, assessing the situation. His vampire turned the beast in his direction. He shifted his weight, prepared to spring on the creature…and a great wash of agony ripped through his middle as though a giant blade had cleaved him in half.

Unprepared for the agony, he cried out and collapsed on the ground. Alucard's head whipped up, eyes wide with terror and rage. Their prey hadn't touched his master, hadn't caused this, so he ignored its fleeing form as he sped to the paladin's side, snarling and growling.

He ripped open the paladin's shirt, but though the man clutched at his middle, there was no blood, no wound. A fine sheen of sweat covered the man's brow and he clenched his teeth against the pain, eyes tightly shut. What kind of agony could do this to his master? Through hundreds of fights, the man had shrugged debilitating pain off as though it was nothing more than a passing itch. _What_ could be responsible for this?

Alex gasped as the pain ebbed just a touch. He could feel the bond flexing and creaking under the strain of Alucard's fury and terror. Gritting his teeth harder, he pressed on the bond, not enough to hurt, but enough to reassure his monster that he still had the reins firmly in hand. He just hurt…and he shouldn't.

"Home, Alucard. Get us home."

He had barely finished the command when the vampire scooped him up and sped toward the trucks they had brought. Alucard snarled at the men as they shot confused questions at him. Seras, not directly bonded to the paladin and better able to keep her head during the crisis, climbed into the driver's seat of the Jeep and turned the key that had been left in the ignition.

Realizing something was very wrong but they wouldn't get an explanation, now, Lady Hellsing ordered the operation done and a retreat back to Hellsing. It was the first time a vampire had escaped since the paladin gained mastership of Alucard. What the _devil_ was going on?

V^^^V

By the time Seras turned onto the long Hellsing driveway, the pain had faded almost completely, but it left behind a bone-deep exhaustion as worrisome as the pain. Alex lay across the Jeep's backseat, long legs jammed uncomfortably against the passenger door, his head resting in Alucard's lap. He looked up at the worry etched on his vampire's brow and couldn't stop a weak chuckle at their apparent role reversal. Usually, it was Alucard's head in _his_ lap.

The vampire whined, reaching out to stroke the unruly hair from his master's sweat-damp forehead. His worried eyes reproached Alex for finding humor in such an obviously distressing situation.

"I'm sorry, vampire. 'Twill be okay. I know who to call," …the bastard.

He didn't like to dwell on the man that had given him his regenerative abilities and near immortality. While he liked the result well enough, the method and the program that created it didn't bear mentioning. Alucard wasn't the only one with metaphorical demons in his past.

He couldn't be sure the man still lived. The Vatican didn't exactly keep him updated anymore, but he knew they had documented every step of the process and kept the research stashed away in one of their many libraries. He was the only person to survive it and they had dismantled the program at his insistence, but they refused to destroy the records. He only hoped that worked to their advantage in the end.

Alucard refused to let him stand on his own when they pulled up to the mansion's front door, growling low in his throat when he tried. Gathering his master in his arms, the vampire dashed up the stairs and through the door, straight to the man's room. Seras pulled back the blankets and Alucard laid the paladin in the bed, growling at him in warning that he best not try to leave. Without giving Alex a chance to speak, the vampire turned and phased through the wall.

"He's gone to get the doctor," Seras said at the paladin's puzzled look.

"Better get me a phone, lass. Yer doctor doesn't know a damn thing about regenerators."

Seras hurried to fetch Alex's cell phone as he settled back on the bed.

He was deep in an argument with a voice on the other end of the line when Alucard returned, literally dragging the Hellsing physician behind him, hand knotted in the man's shirt and jacket lapel. Seeing Alex acting entirely too animated for his condition, he let the physician go and stormed over to loom over the bed, growling softly. The paladin gave him a warning look as he continued his conversation.

"Aye don't _care_ how frail the man is! Ye'll send him and his research, immediately!" Alucard whined with relief as the voice on the other end of the line capitulated. The vampire climbed up on the foot of the bed and crouched there as Alex finished his phone call with instruction to bill Hellsing with any and all expenses. Hitting the 'end' key, the paladin relaxed back against the headboard and closed his eyes with a tired sigh.

Whining, Alucard started to reach for his master and then pulled back, uncertain. Alex opened his eyes and smiled at the vampire. Reaching an arm out, he invited the monster to snuggle up to him. Alucard dove into his side, burying his face in his master's chest and shook. Seras climbed up onto the bed as well, not quite as distraught as her maker, but still needing comfort. Alex ran a hand down Alucard's back as he patted the bed on his other side to invite Seras to join them. The physician looked on, bemused by the sight of these fearsome creatures cuddling up against the paladin.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" the doctor asked. He held no illusions that his degree could avail him in assessing the physiology of a regenerator. So far as his college professors believed, regeneration like Paladin Anderson could achieve was nothing but myth.

"Liquids. Electrolytes, soups, water. For the time being, we'll treat it like a fever."

"I'll let the staff know."

"Thank-you."

The physician showed himself out, letting the door click shut behind him. Alex closed his eyes again, one hand resting on Seras's shoulder, the other running through Alucard's silky hair. Exhaustion weighed down on him, a bone-deep weariness that should have taken days of constant action or severe damage to set in. He hadn't felt like this since he first gained his abilities and lay recovering from the debilitating experience and it worried him. He worried that he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to the vampire pressed against his side, the promise that he would be around for longer than any of his previous masters. Worse yet, if he couldn't keep his promise, he would have to find a way to destroy the beast, because there really, truly, was no one else to take his place.


	3. Diagnosis

**Ch. 2: Diagnosis**

Alucard refused to leave the paladin's side as dawn blossomed over the horizon. Seras stumbled sleepily down to the basement, sending the Hellsing butler up to draw the heavy drapes over the windows in the paladin's room. Alex tried to send the vampire after his child, but Alucard just growled and pressed his face into the crevice between the human's back and the bed. He didn't have the heart to force him to go.

Remembering some incidents from Van Helsing's time with the monster, he did order the vampire's coffin to be brought up and placed beside his bed. _That_ roused Alucard, snarling and growling at the thought of any of the staff touching his coffin.

"Then go get it yerself, ye dobber!" The paladin's temper flared at the vampire's obstinacy. With a glare, Alucard levered himself out of the bed and stalked out of the room, trailing grumbles punctuated by the occasional hiss. Less than five minutes later, he returned with the coffin tucked under one arm like an oversized cardboard box. He set it down on the floor with the bed between it and the window. Yawning so Alex got a good look at every one of his wickedly pointed teeth, he dived back under the blankets, curling up with his back against the paladin's side. With a couple of last token grumbles, he drifted off to sleep.

Alex sighed and reached for the book on his bedside table, but couldn't concentrate long enough to read a single line. When the maid arrived with oatmeal, juice and toast for breakfast, she found Alex passed out, cold, book resting on his chest and a lump under the blankets at his side.

V^^^V

A visitor arrived at Hellsing manor half an hour before dusk. The taxi pulled into the circular drive to deposit a man with gnarled, arthritic fingers, thinning white hair and deep wrinkles framing a pair of mean black eyes. He snarled at the cab driver, complaining about the condition of the cab and the atrocious English weather as the man unloaded three crates from the trunk and a small suitcase from the back seat. The butler showed up to pay the driver and the diminutive old man leaned heavily on his cane as he transferred his diatribe to the Hellsing employee. The cab driver beat a hasty retreat as soon as he had his payment.

"So where is the idiot?" the curmudgeon demanded as the cab pulled away.

"Excuse me?"

"The idiot, boy! The regenerator. Paladin Anderson!"

"Err…yes. Please come inside and I will see if he's awake."

"I'll see him if he's in a coma, I will. Changed that boy's diapers, I did! Take me to him, immediately."

Nonplussed, the butler couldn't decide what to do. He couldn't just show the man into Alex's bedroom. It simply _wasn't done_. Although, if you considered the paladin an invalid, now, he couldn't exactly receive guests in the normal way…

Alex looked up from the journal in his hands as the door to his bedroom opened. He narrowed his eyes at the man that hobbled through and got a similarly malicious look in turn.

"So, what pickle have you got yourself into, this time, boy?" The tone of the words did not reflect kindness or understanding. Not surprising. The man didn't have a compassionate bone in his body.

"Good t' see you too, father." The lump under the blankets next to Alex shifted and he laid a gentling hand on it.

"Leave off with the niceties. You've done something to spoil my work. What?"

Alex sighed, smoothing a hand over the lump. The old man narrowed his eyes at the shifting mass. He didn't like animals at all, especially large dogs.

"That would be why I asked fer ye. I havena a clue."

The old priest sighed and hobbled to the bed.

"I suppose I must examine you, but I insist you send the dog out," he said, gesturing at the lump beside Alex.

"Dog?" The paladin lifted an eyebrow, anticipating the moment that the man realized what was really under the blankets with him. The old man scowled, his eyes flicking around the room. They landed on the coffin, partially covered by a sheet. His lips peeling back in a snarl, the old priest took a step back.

"That can't be…"

"Of course it is. I'm sure everyone back home knows. I canna for a moment imagine they would have failed to tell ye about my new position…and charges."

"Send it away!" The old man's voice thundered through the room, his eyes wide with rage…and a touch of fear.

"I'll not. He's worried enough as it is."

"Then you will figure out your ailment on your own, Paladin Anderson."

With a sigh, Alex looked down at the lump and shook it gently.

Alucard refused to leave, but he did grudgingly vacate the bed and move to the chair in the corner, glaring at the old priest and growling softly. Dark circles had formed under his eyes and he looked in worse straits than his master.

"Roll over and let's see your back," the old man said, shooting a dark glare at the vampire. Alex did as he was told, but when the curmudgeon reached to lift the paladin's night shirt, a vicious snarl ripped out of the creature in the corner. Alex looked over his shoulder at the vampire.

"'Tis fine, Alucard. He must see the sigils to assess them." The snarl quieted back into the growl and the red eyes glowed, but the vampire made no move to attack. Alex nodded at the old man to proceed.

The exam included as much magic as medicine. Alucard had never seen the paladin's back bared without blood coating it, so never realized it was covered in interlocking alchemical symbols tattooed in brilliant blue ink. As the old man ran his hand over them, they flared with blue-white light, but some of them flickered like a dying light bulb.

After an hour of hmm's and ah's, the old priest sat up on the edge of the bed and removed his glasses. A malevolent red glare followed his movements.

"The blessings are failing," he announced. "This generally wouldn't happen, unless a burden of sin is placed on them…enough to overcome their strength, much like a blessed cemetery inhabited by…vampires." The red eyes in the corner grew wide. Alex glared at the old man.

"Tcha. Don't harass him. Ye know as well as I that the cemetery must be corrupted _before_ a vampire may make its home in it."

"True. Through dark ritual carried out in the dark of the moon. What _have_ you done to bond with this creature, Paladin Anderson?"

Alex thought over the bloody, violent, _cruel_ ritual that had been necessary to bind Alucard to him. The vampire's growl had dropped off and a faint whine emanated from the corner.

"Shh. 'Twill be alright." He hoped. "It doesna matter. 'Twas necessary and it is done. What do we need to do to fix this?"

The old man laughed with a malice and bitterness that made Alex's hackles rise.

"Remove the evil influence." A sound erupted from the corner, an impossible conglomerate of enraged snarl and terrified whine. The old man's glare quieted much of the snarl, leaving only the soft whine. "You were never meant to master a creature of evil, _paladin_. I warned the fools in Rome to fetch you back when I learned what you had done, but they blathered on like the cowards they are about the _vampires_ that wouldn't let you go. You are dying, paladin. Once the blessings fail, every wound your abilities have healed over the years will return and the regeneration will be gone."

Silence fell in the corner, a poignant, _shocked_ absence of sound. Alex glared at the old man, his hatred for the genius that created him stronger than ever.

"Gi' out! Gi' out of my room if ye're no more help than that!" Alex pushed himself up, furious about the pronouncement and worried about the silence from his vampire. The old man glared down at him and stood.

"Consider yourself warned, boy. If you do not rid yourself of the vampire, your body will tear itself to pieces."


	4. Cure

**Ch. 3: Cure**

Alucard wasn't eating. Alex had been afraid this might happen, from the moment he collapsed. He also hadn't been getting more than an hour or two in his coffin before he was climbing out and into the bed to curl up with his master.

They had sent the old priest home, the useless sod. They had kept the crates, though, and Alex spent every waking hour pouring over the man's notes and Alucard's record of the bond. There _had_ to be a way to make the two compatible. He refused to believe it wasn't possible. He refused to think about what would happen when Alucard broke the bond…and he would, to save his master. He'd already threatened it and only the paladin's iron will and conviction that they would find an answer stopped him.

"Alucard, dinner is here. You need to eat." He held the bottle out, still warm from the veins of the soldiers that had donated. The vampire looked up. His eyes flared red, but then he shook his head and looked back down at the notes in his lap. Already, his hair had faded to a steel gray, shot through with paler strands. His skin had bleached true white and he had started developing crow's feet around the corners of his eyes. Alex sighed and set the bottle on the bedside table. Pulling the drawer open, he reached in and pulled out a razor he kept there for just such an occasion.

Before he could touch the blade to his skin, a bestial roar erupted from his vampire and the razor flew out of his fingers, knocked away by the beast's hand.

"Don't you _dare_! No more wounds. Not a _one_!"

Alex stared at the vampire, eyes wide. He'd never seen Alucard refuse a taste from his veins. _Never_. Even in the deepest funk, he could bring the vampire back with a whiff of his blood.

"Look, I understand that me being ill upsets ye, but ye'll help no one letting yerself waste away for want of food and sleep, vampire."

Alucard's fierce glare softened into a sad look. He shook his head.

"You don't see the big picture, master. Of course this will help. It will help _you_, when you must destroy me after I break the bond to save your life. The weaker I am, the more likely you are to succeed."

Alex's jaw dropped. Of course he'd thought about the possibility that he might have to destroy Alucard if they couldn't find an answer, but that was it. He hadn't assumed it was a forgone conclusion. He hadn't planned for it…begun to prepare for it. He couldn't let Alucard do this to himself, but the vampire shook his head, his read eyes hard.

"I will not budge from this, master. Not unless you bring the bond to bear fully on me. If we can find an answer, I will recover, even from the deepest starvation. If I am too powerful with the bond broken, I will destroy you and most of England with you."

Alex blinked.

"Self-sacrifice from you, monster? I didna think it possible." Alucard's eyes flicked to the side. Was that a flash of pain across his features? Alex felt immediately guilty.

"We all change, master," the vampire said softly, "and apparently even a monster can learn to love. Every one of my masters would have died rather than see me return to the rampaging fiend I was when Abraham captured me. For their memory, yes. I will learn self-sacrifice."

Alex swallowed hard and felt tears of awe and compassion building at the corners of his eyes.

"Forgive me, monster. I knew not what I said, and if monster you are, 'tis a nobler beast than many a human I have known."

Alucard's eyes widened and came back to rest on his master's face. Before Alex realized what was happening, the vampire swarmed up into his lap, pushing the journals and papers out of the way to curl up with his head under the paladin's chin. With a bemused smile, Alex wrapped his arms around his servant, stroking over his hair, easing the trembling in his limbs.

"'Twill be alright, Alucard. We _will_ find an answer. And I willna press the blood on ye, but so help me, God, if you gnaw me to the bone when this is fixed, I'll lock ye in yer coffin fer a week!"

V^^^V  
Ironically enough, it was an innocent question from Seras that gave them their breakthrough.

"What, exactly, is it that the blessings _do_?"

Alex looked up from the notebook on his lap. He'd been experiencing more and more pain as time went by. They'd also discovered that pain killers didn't work for a regenerator. He shifted and winced. Next to him, Alucard looked up, face haggard and hair gone completely to white.

"They…well…they open the channels to the power that fuels the spells. Holy power. Power that canna abide the touch of sin. Tha's part of the problem."

"Can't you just…reset them?"

"Nae. 'Twouldn't stick. The…evil…is too tightly bound to me, now. Honestly, after reading the notes and research, I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have."

"Is there another way to open a channel?"

"Nae. Even if there was, the power itself might reject me."

Seras frowned, seeing the sadness on the paladin's face. From what he said, the power for his abilities was holy…from God. If the power rejected him, did that mean _God_ rejected him? She carefully refrained from voicing that question.

"So, why don't you find a new power to fuel the spells? Does it have to be holy power?"

Alucard gave his fledgling a speculative look, tired eyes burning out of sunken sockets.

"From the mouths of babes, master. She has a point."

"Aye, but what fuel, is the question. I'll not drink blood. We don't need another vampire to be your master. Odds are good we'd just drag each other down intae madness together."

"There are vampires…and there are vampires. My powers were created in darkness and are fueled by a product of the flesh…blood. Your powers were created in light, to be powered by a product of the higher power. I don't know if we _could_ fuel your spells with blood. It would be like trying to fuel an electric stove with gas."

"What do _ye_ know of stoves?"

Alucard grinned at his master.

"The internet is a wealth of information and a vampire is a _very_ curious creature."

Alex frowned, afraid to ask what else the vampire might have been using the internet to…research. Seras cleared her throat to bring their attention back to her. As time went on, both of them seemed to be developing shorter and short attention spans.

"So what _could_ fuel powers created by light?" she asked to get them back on track.

"Soul energy," Alucard said. Alex stiffened and glared at his servant.

"I'll not take souls. No!"

"Not souls. Soul energy." Alucard rested his head on the paladin's shoulder and wiggled, trying to get closer to his master even though they were already pressed shoulder to hip. He would have been in the paladin's lap except they both needed to be able to see what the other was working on in their efforts to solve the problem. "Emotions, especially the higher emotions. Joy, happiness, contentment…love. One birthday party for the orphans could probably fuel you for days, maybe more."

Alex stared across the room, eyes unfocused and deep in thought.

"What would be the effect on my…victims?"

"I'm not completely sure. I haven't worked with the higher emotions much. When I became what I am, there really wasn't much joy _or_ love to be found. I didn't want to starve in my new form, so I went with something _every_ human has, so long as they're living…blood."

"I dinna want to suck the joy out of anyone."

"Emotions are tricky things. They're not constrained by the same limits as the flesh. When I must take in lust to fuel a new ability, the process tends to _create_ more lust in my victim rather than reducing it. I think, perhaps, if you fed on joy, your victim would become more joyful as you fed."

"That seems infinitely better than blood, no offense, monster."

"None taken, master."

"I agree," Seras said with a wistful look on her face. "Why would anyone want blood when they could feed on happiness?"

Alucard cracked a grin and chuckled.

"Have _you_ ever tried to make someone laugh when they are determined to scowl? Even if you succeed, it often doesn't last. Emotions are fleeting and ephemeral…and they _will not_ fuel most of my powers. Healing, yes. Even super healing. Darkness that can consume an entire building full of lives…no."

"Good points, all," Alex said. "Now, how do we do it?"

V^^^V

Good, old fashioned alchemy. It took Alucard two days to run the calculations and design the circle. Still, he wouldn't take blood. They couldn't be sure this would work and he refused to do anything that might make him more powerful if the bond was broken. He slept wrapped around Alex, face buried in the paladin's back, away from the man's neck.

Alex ached for the vampire. Every instinct in him screamed at him to fix this, to make it _right_, but all he could do was cuddle Alucard in his lap while the vampire worked out the necessary spells. Seras helped where she could, but she could only follow instructions. Alucard was the only one among them that had worked with spells and alchemy, before.

Finally, Alucard shifted and looked up at Alex with a tired smile.

"I've run the calculations three times and they all come out. We're ready to begin."

They had to do _everything_ for the vampire. He could only speak in whispers and couldn't stand without his knees buckling. Even wracked with pain, Alex had to carry the vampire to the room where Seras had prepared the circle. He wouldn't allow anyone else to touch him. Luckily, the creature weighed less than a large bag of potatoes, now.

At some points, they despaired of ever completing the spell because Alucard's attention would wander at odd times, especially when they needed him to _concentrate_. Finally, though, Alex lay face down in the circle, stripped to the waist, teeth grit against the pain of so much movement. The sigils on his back glowed and flickered like a guttering candle. Seras held the instructions for the ritual, the actions she had to perform and the words that must be said.

Alex screamed when the ritual severed the blessings completely. Blood blossomed from a thousand wounds all over his body. Alucard's keening wail rivaled his scream and he almost…_almost_ broke the bond, but Seras hurried to the next stage of the ritual. The blood flow stopped along with the paladin's scream. The wizened creature in the corner continued to keen, but softer now as Seras lit the candles and recited the final words.

Gradually, Alex felt the pain drain out of him and…something replaced it. He couldn't quite describe the sensation. Like drinking hot apple cider next to a warm fire on a snowy day with no responsibilities, or nibbling on homemade chocolates, curled up with the loved one that made them on the anniversary of an important event. He looked up at Seras and then to the starving vampire in the corner. Them. It came from them and it filled him until he thought he would overflow with…joy, contentment, love. A smile spread across Seras's face, her eyes twinkling with happiness.

Alex levered himself to his feet, making a face at the pool of blood left in the circle. He'd lost so much but didn't feel lightheaded or lacking. Stepping out of the circle, he crossed the room to Alucard's wizened, white-haired form.

"Alright, you. Obviously, it worked. Time to get you fixed up."

He didn't bother with a blade. It wasn't like the vampire could _kill_ him, after all. He pulled the creature into his lap, arranging the limbs and positioning the vampire's mouth near his throat.

"Drink."

With that command, the seal that kept him from biting his master, or any other human, released and Alucard latched onto his master's throat, sharp teeth and fangs sinking into the flesh. Alex winced but didn't push the vampire away. Alucard's throat worked, blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth. The flesh filled out and the strength returned to the limbs. Alex relaxed back against the wall and Alucard adjusted, bringing a hand up to cup the paladin's neck, holding it against his mouth. He twisted for a better angle and ended up straddling Alex's lap, bent down to press his face against the throat, pulling the man's shoulders forward so the head would tilt back at a sharp angle.

Alex allowed it, bringing his hands up to run soothingly down Alucard's back. The vampire fed for the better part of ten minutes. A normal human would have died three minutes in. With fangs sunk deep, the blood flowed and flowed until satiation set in and the vampire released his master, collapsing back with a gasp.

The paladin tilted his head down and reached up to touch the healing wound, no trace of swoon on his features. Alucard smiled as he licked the blood from his lips, proud…so proud of the strength of _his_ master. He still needed rest and several days in his coffin, but he had his master safe and healthy, with the bond fully intact. It was a good day.

_**Fin**_


End file.
